REI closing retail shops due to COVID-19

SEATTLE, Wash.-- Washington-based REI is closing its retail stores across the country in response to COVID-19.

In an email to members Sunday night, the retail chain announced that all 162 of its locations in the United States will closed from Monday, March 16, through Friday, March 27.

"We’ve always been deliberate and transparent when making significant decisions about our business," President & CEO Eric Artz wrote in the letter to co-op members. "This is a difficult decision for any business, and I do not make it lightly. Our decisions are grounded in the belief that there are more important things than business right now—we owe that to one another."

According to the letter, employees will continue to be paid, and customers will receive free shipping on items through REI.com while the stores are closed. Customers who have questions about gear and local outdoor activities that they’d normally ask in stores can get answers through the company's digital community, REI Conversations.